When you use multiple applications on your Mac, you may end up with many windows open at once in each application. This may be for work you are currently doing, but at times you might find yourself with a mountain of open windows that contain progress for various projects, and you might wish to keep them open for the sake of your workflow.

Unfortunately, this can be a problem because it will clutter your desktop and hinder your workflow to an extent. For example, if you have many windows open in TextEdit and Safari, when you switch back and forth between these programs using Command-Tab or by clicking icons in the Dock, then the windows of each will cover the those of the other. This may frustrate your ability to use one of the TextEdit windows for jotting down notes while you browse in Safari.

Of course, one option is to close windows and minimize your workflow, or move the windows you want to to keep separate to a new desktop; however, there is an easy way to quickly switch between the current active window of any program, regardless of what other programs and windows you have open.

To do this, simply right-click the program’s icon in the Dock, where you will see a list of open windows for that program above the standard options for quitting and hiding the program. In this list, you will see a check next to the document that is the top-most for that program. By selecting any of the documents in this list, OS X will switch to that program but only bring the selected document to the front, and by selecting the checked document, you will switch to the foremost window in that program.

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Using this approach, if you switch applications and the windows from it cover all your prior work, you can right-click the previous applications you were in and select the checked windows to bring them forward, without having any other windows from those apps cover your workflow.